Archive for the 'Civil Liberties' Category

Today, the Supreme Court heard an important case that could greatly affect the McCain-Feingold campaign laws. It involves a movie highly critical of Hillary Clinton which was originally scheduled for release during the Democratic primaries but was stopped by judges concerned with its legality. This case illustrates the inherent problems with McCain-Feingold. Namely, it forces […]

Some good news for free speech today: the Senate has used its oversight authority to bar the FCC from reconsidering the Fairness Doctrine. While President Obama has publically opposed reinstating the arcane rule that required equal time on the airwaves for opposing political views, Republicans wanted to make sure the Democratic-controlled government didnâ€™t recreate the […]

It is not too early to checkpoint how President Obama is progressing on “undoing the damage” of the Bush/Cheney Imperial Presidency. The most egregious offenses of the Bush/Cheney administration fall under the umbrella of expanding executive branch power at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches, with a commensurate erosion of constitutional protections. On balance – So far… all is not so good.

I’ve been pretty harsh on philosophical neo-conservatism over the last year or so. In fact, it’s safe to say that of all the various (actual) political philosophies that form a significant portion of our governing political coalitions, I have consistently held neo-conservatism in by far the most contempt. And without a doubt, the basic tenets […]

In one of the more, forgive me, torturous staffing processes, it looks like Barack Obama has finally settled on the last major appointment he had left to make, that of CIA director. Given that the Bush administration has done so much long-term, institutional damage to our intelligence superstructure, basic tenets of human rights and the […]

This is Lagan from ANP, We sat down with James Risen, the New York Times national security corespondent who broke the domestic wiretapping stories, to talk about the dilemmas Obama faces with the unparalleled executive power he will inherit. Dick Cheney recently said that Obama would appreciate all of the power they are handing over, […]

I thought Californiaâ€™s Proposition 8 would fail and California would become the first state where the voters themselves actually voiced approval for gay marriage. Obviously, I was wrong. Turns out the progressive coalition that swept Barack Obama into office is not so progressive, at least not on the issue that many on the left consider […]

Do we really think that this many people could be a threat to our national security? From AFP: A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday. The ACLU said it derived that figure from […]